He would figure that out. If I could help him, I would, but in the meantime, I returned to my goal of a few minutes before: to get safely to the stream, then put more distance between me and Nick Parrish and Kai.
Suddenly I heard a faint but familiar sound: a helicopter. A big one, it seemed. My hopes soared. Should I start a signal fire? No. Parrish might see the flames first.
I needed to keep going.
I had taken no more than two steps when I heard their voices again. They were much nearer.
I froze, then very slowly crouched low to the ground. I made myself stay as still as possible.
Too close. They’re too close.
After a time, I realized that I couldn’t tell whether they’d come closer or veered away, because the wind was blowing harder through the trees. Birds were making one hell of a ruckus. There was less light.
Helicopter or no, Parrish and company or no-a storm was coming.
I tried to hear what they were saying. All I could tell for sure was that Donovan was definitely with them. I had a horrible feeling about that, more fear for him in that moment than for myself. He was, I thought, being taken to his execution. I had to do what I could to help him get away. But what? I strained to hear them and finally caught a glimpse of them moving through the trees.
I took out the gun.
FIFTY
Parrish, Donovan was sorry to learn, wasn’t bad at tracking. Fortunately, his injuries slowed him down and probably accounted for his being a little noisy as he moved through the leaf-strewn woods. The injury to his eye, in particular, made depth perception a problem, and he was uncertain as they stepped over fallen trees, roots, and rocky, uneven ground. Kai made even more of a racket, apparently having no notion that stealth was desirable. Soon Donovan intentionally did the same, wanting to give Irene as much notice as possible of their approach.
Her tracks were not difficult to follow at first. He could almost feel her panic by seeing the length of her stride, the broken twigs, vines, and other disturbances showing the path of her initial flight-purely an attempt to put distance between her and the cave, with no effort to conceal her trail. She had run through the forest, but with enough presence of mind to move in an unpredictable manner to avoid giving someone a clear shot at her. Then at a certain point, judging by the way the leaves were crushed and the pattern of her footprints on the soft earth, she stopped to catch her breath. After that, it was more difficult to track her. Still, he thought they were getting closer.
As they stalked her, if their less than stealthy movements could be considered stalking, Donovan began to evaluate his own chances of survival. Time to run a little test. He lagged behind Parrish, pulled a rounded stone from his pocket, and as he moved briefly out of Kai’s sight, launched the rock at a tree near Kai’s head.
Kai jumped and then crouched low to the ground. Donovan had already moved forward to be nearer Parrish.
“Hey!” Kai called.
Parrish and Donovan looked back.
“She must be back here! She just threw something at me!” Kai looked around anxiously, trying to spot his attacker.
“Threw what at you?” Parrish said.
“I don’t know!”
They spent several minutes standing still, listening, waiting. Donovan could hear Kai panting.
Donovan heard other things. The wind was moving more strongly in the trees. Birds were getting louder.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just something falling from a tree?” Parrish asked.
“Yes! It was like a rock or something.”
“She has a gun. Why would she throw a rock?”
“Maybe she doesn’t have any bullets left.”
“Let’s keep moving,” Parrish said.
“It’s going to rain,” Donovan said.
“Rain!” Kai’s face had mutiny written all over it.
Parrish looked at the sky and sighed. “All right, let’s head back to the cave.”
They had nearly reached the place where Donovan’s pack had been left when a faint, distant sound caught his attention. A helicopter. He saw the moment when Parrish registered it, too.
“Stay together,” Parrish said. “We may have company.”
Kai needed no additional encouragement. He began walking closer to Donovan and Parrish. It did not take much work for Donovan to let him get a little ahead, and then several steps ahead. And when Donovan judged the cover to be good enough and their attention fixed on the noises a deer was making as it ran from them, it was not hard to disappear from Kai’s sight. Unlike Kai, he knew how to move silently and quickly in the woods.
Parrish caught a glimpse of him as he moved off, raised his rifle, and fired.
His first shot missed.
The second did not.
FIFTY-ONE
They weren’t aware of my presence. Donovan was moving toward me. Parrish was firing at Donovan. I saw Donovan fall, saw Parrish hurry toward him, gun raised and ready to fire again.
That brought him closer to me. I stood, which brought him to a shocked halt, and I used that instant to smoothly raise my weapon and fire. I wanted more than anything to aim for his face. But I had two bullets and only two bullets. I aimed for his body, taking no chances.
Parrish’s knees buckled, and he fell.
I turned my aim on Kai, whose mouth had opened in a silent, shocked O. Then he ran. I ran after him, pissed as hell, ready to put an end to this. But he kept going, panicked. He ran past something and knocked it over, trying to block my pursuit.
A backpack. It had Donovan’s name on it. Better yet, it had a tent and a bedroll on it.
I let Kai run.
I picked up the pack. It was too large for me, but I put it on anyway and let it jostle against me as I moved back to where Donovan and Parrish lay.
When I got there, I saw that both Parrish and I had been less than successful in killing our targets. Parrish was on top of Donovan, trying to strangle him. Donovan was fighting back. I could not see where he was injured, but it was clear that at least one arm was useless. I dropped the backpack, placed the gun beneath it, and pulled out the garrote.
Parrish was utterly intent on killing Donovan. He had not so much as glanced at me. I stretched the wire between my gloved hands, then quickly put my left forearm against his neck, looped the wire and my right hand over his head, and uncrossed my arms. The wire crossed at the back of his neck. I pulled it tighter.
I had his attention then. I had it through the seconds during which he let go of Donovan, while he clawed and bucked and kicked and rolled, taking me with him. I felt him go limp, didn’t trust it but slackened slightly.
He didn’t move, but Donovan did. He reached into his boot with his uninjured arm and in one swift motion withdrew a knife and plunged it into whatever passed for Nick Parrish’s heart.
FIFTY-TWO
Pete called, patched through by Pappy. He was a little more subdued, which made Frank suspicious.
“What’s gone wrong?” Frank asked.
“I’ve got some bad news.”
Frank drew in a breath.
“No, sorry, not that. I mean-nothing about Irene. But, well, you already know we are trying to track down Roderick Beignet.”
“If you’re going to tell me he managed to ride his bike all the way into town without getting caught by the LPPD, I’m not surprised.”
“You’re mad at me for that last call, bitching at you when you’ve got so much else on your mind. I get it. And I’m sorry. Seriously. If it’s any consolation, Rachel ripped me a new one over that.”
“Rachel knows as well as I do that you don’t do well under pressure.”